License Plate Readers Raise ACLU Privacy Concerns

Update at 12 p.m.

East Have Patch just heard from the ACLU, and East Haven Police is NOT one of the 10 departments named in their complaint. The town was actually East Hartford.

It appears that the original Associated Press report, on which the Hartford Courant report was based, was incorrect.

The ACLU said it will be contacting the AP to correct their report.

Original Story

East Haven police began equipping police cars with electronic license plate readers about two years ago, but the retention of information gleaned from those devices has drawn a complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The Hartford Courant reports that the ACLU claims at least 10 police departments in Connecticut, including East Haven, have been storing license plate reader information in a shared database that raises privacy concerns.

Police use the license plate readers to identify unregistered and stolen cars. The Courant said the ACLU wants the Legislature to prohibit police departments from keeping the data more than two weeks unless it is part of an active investigation.